§ MR. MOOREasked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether his attention has been called to a paragraph in the evening paper of Monday 5th June, purporting to give an account of the sufferings of some emigrants on board the 473 English steamer "Nemesis," said to be chartered by the Netherlands Steamship Company, resulting in an outbreak of diarrhœa, dysentery, and measles, and causing the death of eighteen persons; and, how far his authority extends in such cases, and what steps he proposes to take, or what inquiries he will make?
§ MR. CHAMBERLAINSir, my attention has been called to the statement referred to by the hon. Member concerning the steamer Nemesis. I have made careful inquiry, and I find that the steamer Nemesis is a British ship, chartered to the Royal Netherlands Steamship Company for the purpose of conveying passengers and cargo from ports in Europe to New York. I am informed by the owners, and find by the terms of the charter-party, that no responsibility whatever attaches to the owners for the food of and attendance on the passengers; and I learn from the agent of the Company that the surgeon, who was a military doctor, and all other persons, 17 in number, necessary to attend on the passengers, were engaged and provided by the Netherlands Company, and that before the Nemesis left Amsterdam the Netherlands officials had to be and were satisfied that the Netherlands law concerning emigrant ships had been complied with. I find from a telegram received from the Consul General at New York that 10 deaths occurred among the passengers, and that inquiry is about to be instituted by the Emigration Commissioners there; but no complaint had been lodged with the British Consul General. Under the circumstances stated, I have no authority to interfere or take any further steps in this matter.
§ MR. MOOREIs the President of the Board of Trade aware that large numbers of persons are booked in London under the impression that they are to be carried direct from British Ports to America, and instead they are fraudulently taken to foreign ports and transhipped to a foreign line?
§ MR. CHAMBERLAINI am not aware of that. If the hon. Member gives Notice of the Question I shall cause inquiries to be made. That inquiry could have no connection with the present case, because I am informed that the emigrants of the Nemesis were principally Jews expelled from Russia, and going to New York.